Internet Service Providers For Mac OS 7 - A Word of Advice

Internet Service Providers For Mac OS 7 - A Word of Advice

I recently learned, to my amazement, that there are people out there looking on search engines every day, trying to find Internet service providers that work with Mac OS 7 (which, if you want to get technical, is actually called Mac *System* 7 since Apple stopped using the name "System" many years ago and switched to "OS" starting with OS 8 -- short for Operating System 8).

The reason this amazed me was that it's really pretty surprising that there are that many computers old enough to run System 7 even working still, let alone enough of them for there to be enough searches being done to even make a blip on the search engine trends.

On the off chance that you're one of those people who is looking to find Internet Service Providers for Mac OS 7 (System 7), I've written this article for you.

First I'll briefly try to answer your question, and then I strongly suggest you read my article on the hidden dangers in keeping old computers. Mac System 7 was replaced over 11 years ago, in 1997, which is a *very* long time ago in computer terms.

It's really a very very bad idea to try to keep using computers that old, and I go into more detail in that article.

So here's the thing. If you still have a working computer running System 7, in theory you might actually be able to use it with most ISPs (Internet Service Providers).

Maybe.

Now if your computer only has a dialup modem, then you may be out of luck. Most ISPs have an absolute minimum speed requirement of a 28.8kbps modem, which your computer may or may not have, depending on exactly how old it is.

If your computer has a network port built into it, which a fair number of Apple's early to mid 1990s-era Macs actually had (which was fairly unusual at the time), then you might have a little more luck.

But the thing is, either way, you're not going to get any tech support from the ISP, and you'll basically have to lie to them about your computer's "specs" and tell them it's something more modern, or they'll tell you it won't work.

Several years ago, I was hired by a client with a mid 1990s Mac running System 7 or OS 8 (I forget now, it has been a few years) and they wanted to get DSL.

The phone company had told her she couldn't do it, but when she called me and told me the exact computer she had, I said it'd theoretically be possible to do, since she had a built-in network port.

I was able to hook up the DSL connection and go into her Control Panel settings and set the TCP/IP control panel to use DHCP, which is really the only setting that has to be made. The computer connected, and was able to check email and browse *some* websites.

But don't get your hopes up *too* high -- again, this was probably 5 years ago, and 5 years is a long time in computer years -- the Web has moved on a lot since then, and while she may have been able to visit a fair number of websites then, the number has been dwindling year after year as web sites move on with newer technology.

So the basic answer here is yes, it *may* be possible, but it will work poorly at best, many websites will just not work or may even crash your computer, and in my opinion, it's really not worth it.

It's like trying to drive an old and rickety horse-drawn carriage on the Autobahn -- theoretically it might work, but in practice it's probably not a good idea.

And I'm not exaggerating with that comparison, either; it's all due to something called Moore's Law, which I talk about in my article on the dangers of keeping old computers for too long.

So again, if you're still using an old computer from the mid or early 1990s that's running Mac System 7, get a new computer now.

I'm serious, and I really mean this as genuinely good advice that I really hope you'll follow: a computer that old will break down soon; it's only a matter of time. And while it's working, you won't be able to do most of what a modern computer can do, and what you can do will work slowly and poorly.

If you have any important files on the computer, you're already going to have trouble moving them to a modern Mac, and if the computer breaks down, you might have no chance of saving your files at all.

I don't want to end this article on a down note, but please do read my article "The Hidden Dangers of Keeping Old Computers For Too Long" to learn more about this, and please heed my advice or you will end up regretting it.

I really do hope you listen.